Soggy St. Charles prepares for more rain

Matthew Hinton/The Times-PicayuneEmployees of Quality Fabrication move a pump into position to drain the area around Airline Drive and Ormond Boulevard in Destrehan on Wednesday.Weary St. Charles Parish workers are preparing for another two to four inches of rain tonight even as pump crews try to drain water away from homes after getting hammered by successive deluges earlier in the week.

More than 100 St. Charles Parish homes and businesses were damaged by heavy rains earlier this week and several roads between Airline Drive and River Road remained closed.

Parish officials tallied 113 buildings that were damaged by water so far, and continued to pump water away from flooded roads.

The parish has been pummeled with more than 20 inches of rain in the last 30 days, six times the normal level.

Some 35 Recreation Department workers have pitched in to help place barricades and other roadblocks to steer traffic away from flooded roads, Simpson said.

In anticipation of the rain, sandbags were being distributed to strategic locations and pump crews were being deployed throughout the parish to hold back marsh water that already is at high levels throughout the parish, Simpson said.

Parish and Pontchartrain Levee District workers have been pumping out areas near flooded east bank roads for the past two days, but standing water remains on East Harding Drive and St. Rose Avenue, closing them to through traffic between River Road and Airline Drive.

BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Milla Fritz, 5, and her father, David Fritz, 36, survey the floodwaters outside their home on DeSoto Drive in Luling on Tuesday. Other high-water related closures are the Bayou Gauche Road at Bayou Gauche Island and Magnolia Ridge Road in Boutte. No through traffic is allowd on WPA Road in Bayou Gauche.

Two portable pumps have been placed in the Sunset Drainage District levee to reinforce the district's pump station.

Street flooding in the Willowdale area is largely due to high tides and is not expected to recede until water levels in the marsh south of the development recedes, parish officials said.

Parish officials are urging residents to curtail washing clothes and other activities that put a strain on the parish's sewer system, which has been stressed by stormwater entering the sewer lines. Overuse could lead to sewage backups in homes.

St. Charles Parish sheriff's deputies are on patrol at elevated levels because of a previously scheduled program of putting the office's supervisors and administrators on patrol during the holidays.